The Japan Photo Project took place for 365 days, between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010 to document the whole country with still photography. We traveled 42,000km by a motor home. Here you will see a brief summary of the adventure.

A couple of weeks ago we drove all the way down to Kyushu to assist to the annual Camping Car meeting of our main sponsor, Nuts RV. There we had the chance to introduce our project to more than 300 people and to meet and talk with them. It was a great experience to spend the weekend with camping car experts, we actually learned quite a few tricks to survive during the summer. Everybody was worried about where we would be sleeping during the next months, since it is very difficult to sleep inside the camping car with hot weather. Main advice: never sleep below 1.000 meters height. Difficult … but the truth is that it is already 2nd of july and we haven’t had much problems yet. Now we sleep with all the windows open and it is fine. And by the beginning of august we will be back in Hokkaido to avoid the extreme japanese summer temperatures and to enjoy amazing landscapes, this time without snow!

A few days ago, all of sudden, the needle of gas went down completely. We had to calculate km to put gas. Yesterday, after almost a week, we arrived at a relatively big town, Toyama, so we brought the car to a Toyota shop nearby, but unfortunately the shop was already closed. We tried Autobacks, but they told me to bring it to Toyota. This morning, we brought our car to a Toyota nearby, but they told me that it would take at least 4 days to fix it without examining anything. We almost gave up to fix the gas meter, but we found Toyama Toyopet headquater, and we tried. They received us very well, and examined our car right away. After one hour, the needle was working again. Although they could not fix it perfectly because they did not have the right parts. And the mechanic said to me that he would not charge me because he could not fix it perfectly, he just fixed it temporaly …. Right now, Toyota has a problem with recalling, but as long as there is a mechanic like him, Toyota will be a company that represents Japan. At least, I would buy a Toyota if I bought a car now.

After spending 1.300 euros on snow tires, we have to admit that they work really well and that without them it would have been impossible to drive through Okuhida roads and take pictures in Shirakawago. The feeling of driving up and down the mountains without chains and without sliping is new for us, and really cool by the way. In one week we will deal with snowy roads again as we head to Tohoku and later on Hokkaido. Let’s see if can get that far.

We have decided to place our logo at the front and on one of the sides of our motor home. (We already had placed the logos of our sponsors on the backside of our motor home.) So, we ordered the new stickers to Sticker−Style.com, a sticker company who made the stickers of our sponsors’ logos before. Then, the president of the sticker company sent us an email saying that he saw our website and liked it a lot, and wanted to give us the stickers for free to help us with the project, to make it a successful project! We were very surprised and extremely glad because we did not expect it at all. Thank you so much!

If a fortune teller would have told me a few years ago that in the future I would spend a year in a camping car … I would have not believed it for a second. In fact, never before in my life I considered the idea of driving, renting or owning a camping car, and even less one that looks more like a truck! Life, amazing as it is, keeps surprising us day after day. The idea of carrying out this project with a camping car came just a few minutes after the idea of actually doing this project. And the truth is that we don’t see any other way of making it possible. After two weeks of camping car life, we have the feeling that we will be able to make it through the year without many problems! Fingers crossed! Being able to sleep anywhere, at any time, or cooking anywhere, at any time, or even working in our mobile office anywhere, at any time is what makes this stressing but amazing project possible! I don’t even want to start thinking of finding a hotel for every night, 365 nights in a row, and even less thinking of packing and unpacking all day … (Tina)

On December 27th 2009 we got the keys of the JPP camping car from Mr. Kenji Araki, Nuts Rv’s president. Nuts Rv is the company that has lended us the car to carry out this project for a year. The Border camping car is 5.995 meters long, 2.15 wide and 2.9 meters high. Thank you very much Nuts Rv team!

and during these two weeks we plan to confirm our sponsors, meet in person our future home on wheels, open mobile lines, study the Wi-Fi Internet connection and much more. At the moment we have seen the motorhome, which has been proved so wonderful as it seemed in the photos! Great, comfortable, with microwave, TV, many cupboards and a big bed. Border motor home promises great experience!

Here is our new home on wheels, in which we will live and work during whole 2010!!! Will we find a brand or institution that will want to use it as a mobile billboard? We are working on it! View more photos: Border

Finally, after moths of hard work and many contacts with different companies, we can finally announce our first official sponsor: Nuts RV. This japanese company, based in Fukuoka, will lend us their motor home that will take us around Japan for 12 months during 2010. From here we want to thank Nuts RV for their trust on our project as well as for their help.